Thursday, February 18, 2010

Back when I was 17, with the help of a paper mache pumpkin, orange makeup, and hot knox gelatin to seal the seam, I dressed as a pumpkin-headed scarecrow to hand out candy on Halloween night. It was inspired by Jonathan Winters' pumpkin head on that famous Disney special. I made the face hole too low and the neck hole too far back and had to stuff the empty space between the back of my head and the back of the pumpkin with towels to keep the pumpkin pushed tightly against my face. Two giant beach towels. Imagine sitting with your head in a vulture position with a few pounds of towel behind your head. For five hours. Handing out candy to kids who kept asking "Where's Michael Myers?" (my usual costume for handing out candy).

I pretty much looked like Jonathan Winters below. I was in pain and miserable.

I feel your pain. Once I went trick or treating with a bunch of friends, with a pumpkin on my head, in something that looked fairly similar to Jamie Wyeth's self portrait-- only I had a black suit coat, rather than a wool button-up. We ended up running around the neighborhood all night. It was really hard to run around with the thing on, as it would turn and spin on my head, and I'd loose sight of the triangle eyes and would start to trip. The cold, slimy inside was quite the experience as well, not to mention 10 pounds of pumpkin bouncing around, making my 13-year-old body extremely top heavy.

After about 3 hours of this, I tossed the pumpkin into the middle of the street, relieved of all of the pressure and strain.

My neck hurt for about 2 weeks after that night, but it was so worth it. I might have some pictures somewhere that my parents took...

either way, I looked extremely close to this, but a pumpkin that covered my entire head: